Written by: Aavash Malla - 26001, Grade IX
Posted on: 18 July, 2022
It had been seven years since Ramesh left his home, as a teen who had been left to fend for himself, only he knew how hard it was to survive. He used to live with his younger brother Suresh and mother Ramisha. The only thing Ramesh remembered about his mother is that he and his mother used to fight regularly. Suresh was 2 years younger than Ramesh so it was a bit of pressure for him to take care of his younger brother when his mother used to go out and work. Suresh had just entered his teen phase, he was confused as it is and found it very strange that he was not attracted towards girls but rather he was attracted towards boys. Suresh studied a bit more about why he was attracted to boys while every other boy was attracted to girls. He later found out that he was gay. Suresh who lived in a middle class family was unaware of the conequences that could occur for identifying as a gay person.
After 3 years of hiding his sexuality from people he was frustrated and felt like telling his family regardless. A case of an LGBTQI+ community was just registered so he had gained a little bit of confidence about opening up his sexuality to his family. He had to think for a long while and with a bit of courage, he went to his brother and confessed. At first, his brother took the statement as a joke but after several moments he was a bit worried. Now that Suresh had shared about his sexuality, he was worried about how his mother would react. His brother said was normal and nothing to be ashamed of. After hearing such pleasing words Suresh was happy and said the same thing to his mother but this time it was different. After the first seconds of silence between Suresh and his mother, Suresh stated that he liked guys rather than girls. His mother was shocked and burst into tears. She started screaming and scolding Suresh as if he had committed a crime confessing about his sexuality. This time he was a bit scared and was on the verge of beating him. After hearing his mother scream like crazy, Suresh’s brother came to check what had happened but after finding out what the case was, Suresh’s brother tried to explain that it wasn’t Suresh’s fault and it is completely normal. Suresh’s brother explained that ignoring a person or discriminating a person because of the person’s gender is not the right thing to do as gender does not matter in case of rights and respect. Suresh’s mother stopped screaming and apologized to Suresh and hugged, comforting him. But she admitted that she could never accept him for who he was and she kicked him out.
Looking back, Ramesh knew in his heart that his mother loved him, but not enough to be there for him. All he could do was bury the hurtful memories deep in his heart. Afterall, not all children are fortunate enough to have loving and supportive parents.
